


Our Scarred Little World

by DustyPhantom



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Edelbert - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Grief, Hopeful Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Major Spoilers, Major character death - Freeform, Major crimson flower spoilers, Past Character Death, Possibly OOC, past major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 00:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21467209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DustyPhantom/pseuds/DustyPhantom
Summary: Hubert comforts a grieving Edelgard after the end of the war.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg & Hubert von Vestra, Edelgard von Hresvelg/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Our Scarred Little World

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't played Crimson Flower yet, so I hope none of my facts are too wrong.  
*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR CRIMSON FLOWER ROUTE THOUGH*  
If I use a word wrong, please comment, "I like to use big words because they make me feel ____," the blank being the word I used wrong.

Rain pattered against the window panes, the only noise in the otherwise silent room. The dismal gray sky outside loomed overhead, blocking the sun’s warm, comforting rays from reaching the capital city of Enbarr. Light split the air and shortly followed by the sky’s grieving howl. 

They had won. The Empire was successful. They had suppressed the other countries and dismantled the Church of Seiros. But even so, Edelgard mourned. And still, the empire mourned, for all those lost, for those who had been hurt or scarred or torn from their families. Yes, they were victorious in the traditional sense, but Edelgard had been foolish. Nobody won a war. There were only those who had lost less. 

And oh, however much she hated him, Edelgard could not deny one simple truth: she mourned Dimitri’s death. He was the enemy. Her bitter rival. Her brother. He was the bane of her existence, but apart of her all the same.

She put her hands over her face. She needed to be strong. For herself as much as the Empire. But it felt as though someone had torn a hole in her chest. She was breathing, but no oxygen came to her lungs. She was choking on nothing and everything at the same time.

A broken sob joined the chorus of rain pounding against her bedroom window. Broken. She was broken. She was confident, brave, beautiful for her people, but nothing for herself. A sword that had been swung too many times, broken on her brother’s skull.

A shudder ran down her entire body. These scars were old, but they burned as if she had earned them only yesterday. If she was the empire, then the land was like her body, torn and scarred in ways that would heal, but never completely disappear. 

She didn’t want this to be the world her children would grow up in one day.

There was a soft knock at her door. She managed to choke back a sob as the door creaked open. Edelgard quickly wiped away her tears, but it was not enough to hide her fears from the world, to cover up the scars that tattered her mind as much as they did her body.

“Lady Edelgard,” Hubert said from the door. The Emperor was sitting on a chair in her large quarters, hunched over as she rubbed away tracks of tears with the back of a gloved hand.

He frowned. Edelgard had not been herself lately. She never cried, never showed any sort of emotion so openly. Yet after the war, she had been different. And with every tear that fell, it felt like a dagger in Hubert’s heart.

He moved towards her chair, settling on his knees so he could look into her eyes, “Edelgard,

"Love. Tell me what is bothering you,”

“It’s nothing,” she said, “just me being a fool,”

“My Lady, It takes a lot to make you cry. Just talk to me,”

“I was a fool,” she finally said, “I thought we could solve our problem, just easily end the church with a war. But all I did… all I did was just get more people hurt. And Dimitri…” she choked back another sob.

“I understand,” he said, trying his best to empathize, “But it was for the best. People would have been hurt either way, and probably more if the church had stayed in control. You did what you had to do,”

“I know,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper, “But I killed Dimitri. I know he was my bitter rival, he opposed to everything we were trying to accomplish. But he was my brother. How am I better than the church if I caused so much harm and killed my own kin?”

“He was a cursed man as well,” Hubert said, “He needed to die. Think of how things would have turned out, had he not been eliminated,”

“He was a person as much as you and I, Hubert. All of them were,”

The mage frowned. However much he’d tried, empathy had never come naturally to him. His job was to exterminate those who got in Lady Edelgard’s way, regardless of who they were. Killing was in his job and nature, he had never stopped to think about who he was killing, or what their life may have been like. He barely bat an eye when he ended the life of his own father. It was for the good of the empire, after all.

But Edelgard… she saw more than just an obstacle. She saw that these were people with lives and families, fighting for a cause with as much spirit as she had. They were people just as much as the Emperor was, breathing, eating, living. These people, these soldiers that died for their cause were just as human as she was. And Dimitri. He was a human too. However much she had hated and opposed him, she had taken his life.

Hubert could speak the words, but he could not understand them. She was the Emperor. She was above all else. She was the most influential woman in Fódlan. But she put herself on the same level as peasants, regarded them all as equals. Yes, they may be human, but they were not nearly as important as her. 

The mage shuddered as another sob broke free from Edelgard’s throat. He hated it when she made that sound. He hated it when she was sad. He took a deep breath, raising his hands to brush away the tears in the corner of her eyes with gloved thumbs.

“I know,” he murmured, “I know it’s hard, but we had to do it. For the church to be suppressed, for us to still be alive. Besides, there is nothing we can do about it now, and crying helps nothing,”

Edelgard nodded, leaning her head on his shoulder. She knew he didn’t understand. He was raised to kill, raised to care about her life alone. She dreamed that someday her beloved fiancé would understand the value of all life, and be able to be a caring father she saw deep within.

Hubert shifted her into his arms, carrying her as if she were a child to their bed. He put her down gently, pressing a kiss on her forehead before joining her on the bed. However much he wasn’t fond of physical affection, he loved Lady Edelgard, and he would do anything to see her happy again. It was more than just the sense of duty he was taught as a young child now. It was a sense of devotion, an emotional bond that could not be severed. Love, perhaps. That was why he had accepted her marriage proposal, so he would always be by her side and not only bound by duties.

Hubert pulled the emperor into a gentle hug, stroking her silky white hair, which for once hung loose. He didn’t understand where this emotion was coming from, her strong value for life. Before, death had barely phased her. Now it was her world. The thought that pained her the most. He nestled his chin on her head, pulling her closer to his body.

Edelgard shifted, wrapping her arms around his waist, “I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I know you don’t like seeing me like this,”

“Nothing to apologize for. I know you’ve been having a hard time. I could never understand, but I will always do my best for you,”

An ever so subtle smile crossed her face, “I’m glad that I have someone as caring as you with me,”

A quick huff of a chuckle left Hubert. Him? Caring? Well, he did care for Edelgard. Much more than he did all those years ago. Maybe he had changed more than he thought.

“I’m just so afraid that your life could be thrown aside like all those soldiers. I know it is your duty to protect me, and you will never abandon that job. But I’m scared you’ll get yourself hurt. You’re the person I value most in the world, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I knew it was my goals and desperation that had gotten you hurt,”

“I love you too, more than anything else, and you crying hurts me. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself either if I was the reason you were upset. My job is to protect you, but if doing that includes keeping myself safe, then so be it,” He comforted, kissing the top of her head.

After a long few minutes of silence, Edelgard let out a shuddering sigh, “I also just wish… That this wasn’t a world where we have to kill for our values. That it could be peaceful and we could work things out without conflict.”

“That is always the ultimate goal,” Hubert responded, “But sometimes it is just not possible. Violence is just what has to happen sometimes,”

The Emperor pressed her head against the Mage’s chest. She had become weak. Scared, afraid of what she had done. But maybe, maybe that’s what this was supposed to feel like, a prelude to the protective instincts she would feel for her unborn child.

“I never wanted our child to be born into a world as scarred and dangerous as this one,”

Hubert nodded, “But it’s our world, so we’ll just have to make it as safe as we can,”

Wait.

What had she just said?

He pushed Edelgard back so he could look her in the eyes, “‘Our child?’ Did I hear you right?”

She reached for one of his hands, placing it over her stomach, which was ever so slightly swollen.

“Oh, Edelgard,” he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers, “I should have known,”

“Everything makes sense now, doesn’t it? Why I’ve been thinking so much about the value of life," 

He nodded, still intently focused on where his palm met her belly. Life. There was life, right under his hand. Life that was so delicate, so fragile one wrong move could end its existence. A light that could be so easily doused. The Empire’s light. Edelgard’s light. Their light.

But despite how weak and small it was, he never wanted it to leave, never wanted it to die out. It was the most valuable thing in his world. His baby, yet to be born and yet to live and thrive and experience everything the world had to offer. But she would someday. He had to protect that opportunity. He had to protect his child’s future.

"I promise. I will make this world safe. I will keep myself safe, for both of you. I love you, and I will protect our child with all that I am,”

Edelgard smiled, pressing a gentle kiss against his forehead, and then his lips, “I’m glad to hear it. But know this; I will always be by your side. Never think you have to do this alone,”

Hubert contemplated those words. It was his job to protect Edelgard, to do the dirty work for her. But she wanted this. She wanted to be treated as an equal, to personally make an effort for the greater good. He reciprocated her kiss, relishing in the feeling of her soft lips against his before speaking again, “Of course, my love,”


End file.
